Coping without the Captain
by Arysthae
Summary: Sanada deals with life without Yukimura and discovers just how deep the bonds of friendship are between the Rikkai Regulars. Slight Troika/Alpha Pair if you peer, but mostly friendship. Set before canon. Rated K , since they're in middle school.


**Coping without the Captain**

**AN: I kind of screw up the timeline given to us in PairPuri, but I think that this makes more sense, given the severity of Guillain-Barre and how quickly it's cited to take effect. **

Sanada sighed as he took notes on the nervous system from the board where the sensei was teaching. He was only half paying attention, his mind still firmly in tennis after their morning practice without Yukimura. Marui had to work on his backhand swing; that much was clear after his shocking defeat to Kirihara that morning. And Niou could have used some more stamina.

He felt a subtle poke to his side from Yanagi just as the teacher turned around to ask the class a question. It was directed to him, and he answered, making sure to look like he'd been paying complete attention to every word she'd been saying. She turned back to the board, looking satisfied and Sanada gave Yanagi a grateful nod.

_You're spacing out more than usual today, Genichirou._ He scrawled onto the side of Sanada's textbook with a pencil.

_**Concerned about Marui's backhand. Need to work on that before the practice matches with Hyotei.**_ He scrawled back quickly, making sure to not look in Yanagi's direction. He and Yanagi had perfected the art of passing notes in elementary school and continued to apply it in normal lessons.

_Hmm. Some practice with the machines should sort him out. 74% likelihood of him being able to fix it before the practice matches. _

_**Any way to make that percentage higher?**_

_Increasing his motivation might help. Jackal-kun or Seiichi would be good for that. _

Sanada frowned as he read the message from Yanagi._** Speaking of Yukimura, where is he?**_

_No idea. I'd assume that he's at home. 92% chance of that. After he fainted last week, he might not be feeling too well. I recall that he looked pretty feverish on Friday. _

Sanada frowned again and turned back to the window. He was worried about Yukimura. It wasn't like him to neglect his health, yet he'd looked steadily worse all of that previous week. There wasn't much of a surprise that he'd missed school, but Sanada was worried. Maybe he'd pay Yukimura a visit after practice today. He blinked a little as the class synonymously turned the pages in the booklet they were reading from. There was something about synapses that he'd just missed. Looked like he was going to have to read his textbook tonight.

_Need me to ask Yagyuu for his notes again?_ asked Yanagi, his face twisted into a smirk, despite studiously avoiding Sanada's gaze.

_**For yourself, perhaps. **_Sanada snarked back, before drawing the little symbol that signaled that they should go back to paying attention. Or at least, looking like they were paying attention.

Suddenly, the door to their class opened and one of the office's errand ladies was there. "I apologize for interrupting your lesson, but Sanada-kun and Yanagi-kun are requested by the Headmaster. They won't be coming back to the lesson."

Sanada exchanged confused looks with Yanagi. He shrugged and they both packed away their books into their bags. They passed Yagyuu on the way to the door and he gestured to his notes, questioningly. Sanada nodded and Yanagi smiled gratefully before they exited.

"Any idea why we've been called to Yoshizawa-sensei's office, Niraka-san?" asked Yanagi pleasantly. Sanada wasn't surprised that Yanagi knew her name, Yanagi practically knew everybody on the campus and plenty more beyond that.

"No, I apologize, Yanagi-kun." she said, looking apologetic as she tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ears, going slightly pink.

She split off from them quickly and they walked their way through the school in near silence. Yanagi broke in. "56% chance of being called there regarding the tennis team, 32% chance about grades, 12% chance about it being something else."

Sanada nodded. That was all they needed. "Thank you, Renji."

Finally they arrived at the headmaster's office and they were ushered in nearly immediately, something that almost never happened. This must have been something important. Sanada exchanged a concerned look with Renji who looked somewhat confused.

"Have a seat, Sanada-kun, Yanagi-kun. Would you like some onigiri?" asked Yoshizawa-sensei, the school's headmaster. Sanada shook his head wordlessly, but felt slightly horrified. Something bad had happened. Something very bad had happened. Their headmaster was a formidable man, who rarely babied anybody. Offering food to a student was akin to the apocalypse.

Sanada knew that he should say something, but he didn't know what to say, and 'Tarundoru' _really_ wasn't appropriate and—

"Is there a reason for calling us to your office, Yoshizawa-sensei?" asked Yanagi, politely.

Sanada silently thanked him for speaking up where Sanada couldn't. Yanagi and Yukimura were perhaps the only two, other than his mother who knew how difficult social situations were for Sanada. Talking for more than five sentences without going off-topic was difficult, especially when he didn't know the person and when he found the subject at hand, stifling or boring.

His grandfather was perhaps the only one who'd managed to get him to speak more than six sentences at a time, and that had been when Sanada had been tested on the kendo principles at the age of eleven.

"Yes, I have. I'm afraid that Sanada-kun will now be the captain of the tennis team, and you, Yanagi-kun will be the vice-captain." said the headmaster, looking directly at Sanada.

Sanada blinked. He hadn't been expecting that. What reason did the headmaster have for announcing that now? "Why?" he asked, leaning forward.

The headmaster looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Yukimura-kun will no longer be attending Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku."

Yanagi sat up straight at this. "What? Why? Did he transfer to another school?"

The headmaster shook his head. "I'm afraid it isn't as innocent as that, Yanagi-kun. Yukimura-kun is currently hospitalized in the Kanai General Hospital with dire symptoms that are consistent with many diseases that are linked to severe neurological disorders."

Yanagi looked like he'd just been slapped. He didn't say anything and Sanada poked him in the side. Yanagi didn't react and Sanada sighed. He wasn't exactly sure what a neurological disorder was, but it didn't sound good. Any kind of disease to do with the brain was almost certain to be devastating. "Is he currently accepting visitors?" asked Sanada, keeping his voice level, despite the turmoil inside of him.

Brain disease? Was there a chance of death? Was Yukimura going to return? What state was he in? Was he scared? Would he be able to play tennis? Was it linked to the fainting from last week?

"I'm afraid that he isn't. You should probably contact his parents and ask them to inform you when he is allowed to have visitors again." said the headmaster, looking very sympathetic. Sanada took a deep breath inwards and nodded towards the headmaster.

"I'm afraid that I must decline your offer of making me captain. Whether he is in the hospital or not, Yukimura is still the captain of our tennis team. However, I will accept the post of temporary captain." Sanada said, shortly. It was all he could say in this situation. What else could he say?

"Agreed entirely." said Yanagi, his voice rough and sounding like he was on the verge of tears.

The headmaster looked temporarily taken aback before his face softened into a smile. "Such loyalty from two so young. Very well. Yukimura will remain the captain of our tennis team." Suddenly though, his face sharpened and Sanada looked behind where he and Yanagi sat. The tennis national trophies hung up on the wall behind them. "But I say this now, if there is any slacking from the team in the absence of Yukimura, I will make you captain, noble sentiments or not." said the headmaster.

"There will not." said Sanada fiercely. Yukimura or not, Rikkaidai was Rikkaidai. They won, no matter what.

The headmaster nodded slowly. "Keep it that way. Now, you are excused from your last lesson so that you may prepare for setting up the tennis team. However, this privilege will not extend to tomorrow, and I expect you to be organized by then. Dismissed." The headmaster said, standing up.

Sanada stood and Yanagi rose at his side. They both bowed and chorused, 'Yes, Yoshizawa-sensei', in unison, before leaving the room.

The moment that they were away from the office, Sanada steered Yanagi outside. "What does neurological disorder mean, Renji?"

His usually lidded-eyes were open and looked suspiciously watery. "I—I—" he stammered and Sanada slapped him lightly across the face.

"Pull yourself together, Renji. What does it mean?"

Yanagi took in a deep breath and launched into a speech. "A neurological disorder is a disorder of the nervous system, by some sort of structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result in a range of symptoms. Examples of symptoms include paralysis, muscle weakness, poor coordination, loss of sensation, seizures, confusion, pain and altered levels of consciousness. There are many recognized neurological disorders, some relatively common, but many rare."

Yanagi took in another deep breath and starting listing common diseases, the percentage that Yukimura had that disease and the symptoms of that disease that Yukimura had shown. At this point, Sanada usually stopped Yanagi, but Sanada knew that analyzing and letting out data was relaxing for Yanagi, who looked like he needed to calming influence, so Sanada let him talk for a few minutes, before Yanagi lapsed into silence on his own.

"Any better?" asked Sanada, after a few moments of peaceful silence.

"Not really. You?" said Yanagi. But the water from his eyes had gone and he looked much more able to lead the non-regulars in practice today.

"Not really. What can you say to an announcement like that?" asked Sanada, pulling his hat out of his bag and shoving it firmly over his head so that his expression was mostly covered.

"Nothing of import, anyway." said Yanagi and they sat in silence for a little longer, before Sanada got up from the bench, feeling almost 50 years older.

"Come on, Renji. If you go to the locker rooms and set up the schedules and write down the freshmen duties on the whiteboard, I'll set up the courts and warm up the machines. We'll not play any matches today, just work on drills. Marui's backhand needs to be addressed, Kirihara and Niou's stamina needs to increase, Yagyuu and Jackal's power must increase and everybody could work on their accuracy." Sanada said, quickly working it all out.

Yanagi nodded. "I'd suggest some weight training for Niou and Kirihara. We'll get them to wear weights on a daily basis as well as double weights during the other drills today. Jackal and Yagyuu can work on returning each other's shots and their timing to make those shots more powerful. We'll get a few second-years to measure the speed and power with them. Marui's backhand. I'll work on that, I have some ideas. Will you oversee the non-regulars today?"

Sanada sighed before nodding. "I suppose I'll have to." That was usually Yukimura or Yanagi's job. Sanada was too stern to work with the non-regulars who weren't as determined to win, but it couldn't be helped from now on.

"Isn't there also something else that we should do?" asked Yanagi, opening his eyes a tad.

"Like what?" asked Sanada.

"We have to tell the tennis team about Yukimura. We can't just leave them in the lurch." said Yanagi, sternly.

"You tell them." Sanada said, pulling the hat over his eyes. The last he wanted to do was speak about it.

Yanagi sent him a withering look. "You're the temporary captain, Genichirou, you can't worm your way out of doing your duty."

"And you're better with words." Sanada retorted, as they made their way to the locker rooms. The duty barb had hurt. Sanada was nothing, if not dutiful.

"It means more when it comes from you. The team trusts you more than they trust me. The non-regulars are afraid of me." Yanagi said, looking more amused than the statement required as they opened their lockers.

"And whose fault is that?" asked Sanada, darkly. "Am I not supposed to be more intimidating?"

Yanagi smirked as he took off his shirt. "Sure, but you don't know their every weakness, thought and move at every time of the day."

Sanada rolled his eyes under the safety of his hat as he tied his shoelaces. It was a bad habit that he should have gotten rid of, especially since his grandfather disapproved, but sometimes it was required. "Again, whose fault is that, Renji?"

"Mine." Yanagi, said shamelessly. "But now you have to deal with the consequences of that."

"You owe me." Sanada muttered, as he stalked away, grabbing his tennis racket, as he slammed the locker door behind him. He could swear that Yanagi was cackling as he walked out of the locker room and he growled.

Luckily, the monotonous process of setting up the nets and turning on the machines was enough to melt away the excess anger, leaving his normal mask of stoic indifference. It wouldn't do to lose his composure. Only beginners and those without discipline lost their temper and composure in such an unseemly fashion. Besides, Yanagi was right, as per usual. Sanada was the vice-captain and he would have to take over more responsibility than just more paperwork and meeting attending.

Yukimura knew every single member by name, even if they were freshmen and knew exactly what they had to work on. He knew their family and their likes intimately (most likely through Yanagi's information network), but because of his friendly air, nobody took offence and genuinely liked him. Most of all, Yukimura took the responsibility of all 50 members of the tennis team at Rikkaidai. Sanada had to shoulder that responsibility and it was already a daunting task.

The ball rang and Sanada sighed. The room was set up. He had about ten minutes before the bulk of the members joined him in the room. He might as well use it. He started to stretch out and started the kata for his kendo exercises, using his racket as a weapon. It wasn't the best use of his time, but his mind was unsettled, and that wasn't good.

"You're certainly tense, Sanada-fukubuchou." said a voice behind him, and Sanada turned around to see Niou.

"You're early, Niou." he said, nodding, as he dropped his racket to his side. Being embarrassed for being caught was useless. Better it was a regular than a non-regular, in any case. Even if it was the most troublesome regular.

"Yanagi's got a team announcement on the board. Thought I might as well show up early to get a good seat." said Niou, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Your lies are transparent Niou. But since you are here, start warming up. You'll be working on your stamina along with Kirihara."

"Puri~!" he said, winking as he started to stretch out. Sanada refrained from rolling his eyes and took his seat on the bench as everybody trooped in and the clever ones started warming up. He regarded them calmly until all fifty had finally trooped in, with Yanagi coming in last, thumbs up.

He stood up and whistled loudly. Everybody turned to look at him. "Everybody, listen closely. For an indefinite time-period, I will be your temporary captain. Yoshizawa-sensei has approved this decision and therefore, I will not accept any slacking. The Kanagawa Prefecturals are approaching and therefore practise will be more grueling than usual. Tarundoru." he said, sternly, making sure that his voice carried.

Kirihara frowned and stuck his hand up. "Kirihara." Sanada said, pointing at him.

"What happened to Yukimura-buchou?" he asked, loudly, frowning.

There was an outburst of whispers and Sanada frowned and held his hand up for quiet. He was relieved to see that he'd got it. His authority was being accepted by the tennis team. He was grateful for that. "Yukimura is currently in hospital, with an illness to his nervous system. The exact details are unclear currently, but Yanagi will be keeping the team informed as to his condition. It is unknown if-when he will return."

Kirihara stepped back, his eyes wide and it seemed to be the reaction of most of the tennis team. He let the whispers reign for a minute, before he raised his hand again, and garnered silence again. This time, Marui raised a hand. "Do we know where he's staying?" he asked.

Sanada nodded. "However, he is not allowed visitors at this point. Once he is, Yanagi will inform everybody. Anything else?"

There was silence. "Dismissed. Get back to practice. Hyotei are strong this year, and if we lose to them, there will be no forgiveness." he called.

Once mostly everybody had dispersed, Yanagi smirked. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Of course it was. It was horrendous." he deadpanned and Yanagi smirked slightly.

"You never fail to amuse, Genichirou. 85% chance of you saying that."

"Go help Marui." said Sanada, before striding towards the second-year regulars, his stern frown firmly in place.

(X)

"More power!" yelled Sanada, returning Jackal's shot with ease.

"Yes, fukubuchou!" yelled Jackal, as he pushed all of his weight into the ball and sent it towards Sanada.

Sanada nodded and settled into 'zan', making sure to keep both his hands firmly on the racket. He returned the shot as he came to him, throwing it into an awkward corner. After all, it was all very well cultivating Jackal's power in a practise rally, but a real opponent wasn't going to set up perfect shots for Jackal to be able to show off his power.

Jackal ran towards it and a weak shot followed. "Pathetic!" yelled Sanada, "Tarundoru!"

To his surprise, Jackal's eyes narrowed as he ran towards Sanada's finishing shot and returned it with a sharp movement. Sanada ran forward to reach it and blinked as the racket clattered out of his hands onto the ground.

He turned to look at Jackal, who had frozen and was staring at his racket, in shock. "If you can replicate that another ten times, I will consider you strong enough for the games against Hyotei." Sanada said, coldly. "Until then, I will pass it off as a fluke."

Jackal looked horrified at the thought of having to repeat that move ten times again. Sanada sighed a little. He believed in pushing people to their limits, but Jackal looked like he was going to collapse. "Take a break. Five minutes. Then we'll start again." Sanada informed sternly. Jackal visibly exhaled and smiled.

Sanada nodded sternly before surveying the other courts and practice sessions. Marui was testing his backhand against Niou and Yagyuu, who were pushing him to his limits. Good, their motivation was high, therefore the probability of success was higher, almost 90%.

…Yanagi was infecting him. Sanada'd been inundated with statistics for the past few days as they blundered their way through schoolwork and teacher meetings and extra paperwork and knowing everybody's weaknesses personally. Not to mention that Sanada was also rehearsing for a main part in the school play and teaching kendo classes to some of his grandfather's younger students.

Somewhere along the line, Sanada was forgetting something, but he couldn't recall what. It mustn't have been very important if it hadn't come back to hit him around the head yet, but it was a niggling sensation nonetheless.

Speaking of Yanagi, he was coaching the second years successfully, though as he'd predicted to Sanada darkly upon seeing his name on the roster, their performance had severely decreased in terms of accuracy and speed. Still, they were learning something, which Sanada counted as a success, especially since the group was mostly filled with the people who were flocking to the tennis club because of the Rikkaidai reputation and not any real love for tennis.

Sanada didn't start properly paying attention to the second years until the last of the slackers vanished after the last match of the Kanagawa Prefecturals. Neither had Yukimura and that had generally worked out. Anybody who was better than the average usually showed their head pretty quickly, like Kirihara had, last year.

And Kirihara, the devil himself, was drilling hard against the tennis machines, his eyes following each ball sharply, narrowed with determination. Sanada knew that the loss of their captain had thrown something off in their youngest player, but he also knew that the only way that Kirihara was going to get better was if he strived to defeat whatever had thrown him off balance. It was a road that the young player needed to travel alone and Sanada approved of it. The rest of the team gave him far too much lenience as it was.

Sanada turned back to Jackal, who was breathing heavily on the bench, sipping water and looking slightly unfocused. If Sanada didn't know better, he would have said that the Brazilian player's stamina had been breached. If it had been up to Sanada alone, he would have given him a longer respite for him to recover a little more. But for all of Yukimura's kindness off the courts, he loathed any sort of slacking. And Sanada was trying to fill his shoes. Besides, no opponent would give him the chance to regain his energy.

"Ready to begin again, Jackal?" he asked, gruffly. Jackal looked up blankly, before nodding and wearily getting up. "I expect the best from you, Jackal. Your potential has barely been tapped." he said, sternly.

A fire lit in Jackal's eyes and Sanada knew that despite the Brazilian's exhaustion, there would be ten more power balls by the end of this session.

(X)

"Thanks for helping me out, Sanada-fukubuchou." said Marui, as he stretched out, from where they'd been going over the science notes for the various control systems in the human body. "I really didn't get any of this."

"It's bad enough that Niou was failing Music a month ago, I won't have another tennis regular fall into disgrace with the teachers." said Sanada, stiffly, packing away his pencils. It was one of the only days where the tennis team didn't have practice, due to the fact that over half of their members going off to other council meetings.

"Whatever your reasons are, thanks a bunch." said Marui, as he too started packing away. "Are you going to play a round of tennis now?"

"No, I have a lot of paperwork, regarding the exhibition match with Hyotei." Sanada said, stiffly. "There are several scouts coming to see the quality of both team's performances."

Marui nodded, looking a little disappointed. Then his face lit up. "If I give you a hand filling out all of the forms and things, will you play a couple of games with me? I know all of Akaya's details and all of Jackal's stuff too!"

Sanada hesitated. He had to say, that was a tempting offer. He did want to play a game of tennis and Yanagi was too busy with the student council today to help him fill out the required forms in preparation for the weekend. "You must be diligent, Marui." he said, sternly, "If you can't be diligent, I would ask that you not even try to help out."

"I'm diligent!" protested Marui, looking irritated. "I tutor the bothers they call my brothers all the time and I was the one who made sure that Niou's grade in Music picked up again! Just because I don't have a stick up my ass like yo-Yagyuu, doesn't mean I'm not responsible."

Sanada had to hide a smirk beneath a stern glare. He was pretty sure that Marui _wasn't_ going to say Yagyuu previously, but since he'd managed to correct himself in time, Sanada would let it slip. Still, Sanada couldn't just let him off the hook entirely. "Insulting a teammate is hardly the best course of action, Marui. I want you to wear double the weights you normally do during the Hyotei matches and only take them off if you and Jackal are losing."

At Marui's protests, Sanada lifted a hand. "Call it a test of your stamina. Everybody on the team knows that you struggle with your stamina. Push yourself to the limits now, at a leisurely pace, rather than frantically at the Kanto Regionals. When you truly try your hardest, there are no limits." he said, sternly, as he threw his bag over his shoulder. Sanada hoped that Marui would see this order for what it was; both a punishment and a challenge, which said, '_Get better. Reach higher and fly faster'_.

Marui sighed and nodded. "Yes fukubuchou." he mumbled, as he slumped down in his chair, blowing a bubble dejectedly.

Sanada turned backwards towards Marui. "Why are you slacking? We have paperwork to fill out and we have to be done before it's too dark outside. Tarundoru!"

Marui blinked slightly, before grinning and running after Sanada. "Thank you, fukubuchou!" he said, looking grateful. Sanada didn't respond, but nodded.

(X)

"Ne, Genichirou?" asked a tinny voice, peeking its head into his bedroom.

"Hello Sasuke-kun. What's the matter?" asked Sanada, putting down his pen, as he turned away from the last of his English homework.

"Will you play a game with me?" he asked, coming to stand next to Sanada, peering over his shoulder at the neatly printed English sentences.

"I can't, Sasuke-kun, I'm busy." said Sanada sternly, as he took his history worksheets out of his file to start working on. "Ask mother or grandfather."

"They're busy too!" said Sasuke, looking irritated. "Everyone's always busy! Why won't you play with me? What have you got to do anyway? You're only seven years older than me!" he said, pouting adorably, his long black hair waving with his every motion.

"I have to pass the Rikkaidai high school exams, I have to coach my team to victory at the Nationals, I have a tonne of paperwork to fill out and I have to teach grandfather's kendo classes. I'm busy Sasuke-kun, age is hardly a factor in anything. Tarundoru! You can do something in your free time as well! If you have time to complain, you have time to do something else!" Sanada barked, as he filled out the blanks.

"You act like you're older than daddy." said Sasuke pouting. "Even Daddy makes time to play with me. You act like you're Grandpa's age! You're such an old man!"

Sanada growled slightly and turned around. He knew that it was difficult for Sasuke, especially after losing a mother and having to deal with a father that was rarely at home. Sometimes, Sanada got very irritated at his aniki and the lack of responsibility that his aniki had for his own child. But loneliness and fear was no excuse for bad manners. He pinched his nephew tightly, gripping onto his arm.

"Go bother someone else, squirt. And don't call me old man." he hissed darkly.

Unfortunately, Sasuke's face lit up. "Old man, old man, old man!" he taunted, grinning, practically ignoring Sanada's tight grip. Sanada growled angrily and turned around very determinedly and went back to filling out worksheets. Sasuke wanted attention and the last thing that Sanada was going to do, was encourage the bratty behavior.

Still, if it wasn't part of the unspoken rule that you don't hit children, Sanada would have hit Sasuke quite hard, long before the point where Sasuke was flying around the room with Sanada's favourite tennis racket.

"Get out!" yelled Sanada pushing the child out of his room and sliding the door shut angrily. "And stay out, pipsqueak!"

(X)

Sanada sighed as he finished off his bento in silence, as he scanned the last of the newspapers. It was usually Yanagi's job, but he'd been called off to some teacher's meeting, leaving Sanada to trawl through the newspapers and magazines to make sure that Rikkaidai's reputation stayed intact after the highly successful matches against Hyotei.

It had gone as well as could be expected. Jackal and Marui had lost two games to Hyotei's Doubles 2 pair, before Marui had gotten his act together and played to his best of his abilities, utilizing his tight-rope walking ball perfectly, to the shock of his opponents.

Yagyuu and Niou had been challenged by the Doubles 1 pair, but not enough that they couldn't win the game 6-0, with relative ease. Of course, Atobe on the sidelines, hadn't looked too happy about it, and Sanada was sure that Hyotei would be a tougher opponent when they next came across them. He looked forward to it.

He'd played against the second-year they called Wakashi in Singles 3, eager to finish off the battle. The scouts had been getting too excited at that point and Sanada had finished the game 6-0 in only aces and return-aces.

Hyotei were good, they just weren't good enough to beat Rikkaidai.

Still, one thing still rankled at Sanada's mind. Atobe hadn't played a single regular against them. It was like a slap to the face, especially since the arrogant idiot had been smirking the entire time that they'd shook hands. Thing was, it wasn't like Atobe. Sure, they'd managed to hide away the talents of the Hyotei regular players, but Hyotei had spectacularly lost in front of the cameras. For someone who was mainly concerned with appearances, it was a bad move.

Hmm. He didn't like to admit it, but Sanada was confused.

"Sanada-kun?" asked a familiar voice and Yagyuu stuck his head in. "Oh, there you are. Yanagi-kun asked for you to meet him at the gates after the short practice today. I don't know why, he was cryptic as per usual."

"Thank you, Yagyuu." said Sanada, rising from his chair. "You've gotten some good reviews in the Monthly Pro Tennis article. It seems that one of the reporters is also a golf fan and appreciated your swings." Sanada handed the article to Yagyuu who skimmed it quickly with a light smirk on his face.

"Niou would find this amusing. I don't think Marui will appreciate that they spelt Jackal's name wrong, though." said Yagyuu, adjusting his glasses, and with it, his smirk vanished.

"Hmm. Give it to him after practice, would you? I want him to work on his underhand serve seriously, it's pretty terrible." said Sanada, as he sat back down and pulled out his notes for his history exam in his sixth period. It wasn't like archery needed any actual thought on his behalf, after all.

Yagyuu scoffed slightly, as he cleared the teacher's desk. "Don't worry Sanada-kun, I'll be sure to keep him on task."

(X)

"So why did you want to see me, Renji?" asked Sanada, as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

Yanagi smiled and he looked very relaxed. "Yukimura's allowed to have visitors now. The school was informed yesterday. I thought, if you feel that you have the time, we could go and visit him."

Sanada quickly reviewed his schedule in his head. "I have a kendo lesson to teach at 8.00pm, and I want to eat some dinner, so I would suggest we stay for a short while and visit for a longer time period at the weekend, after morning practice. We can bring the rest of the team as well."

Yanagi nodded. "Say, could I get a glimpse at your music notes? I missed the first half of the lesson."

Sanada rolled his eyes as he slung his bag over his shoulder and took out his notes. "You know, for someone who's supposedly so diligent about gathering data, you don't take many notes in lessons."

"I take the important data. I rely on the rest of you for the other stuff." said Yanagi, smirking as he scanned through Sanada's detailed notes. "Genichirou, if tennis doesn't work out as a career, you should really go into accounting or secretarial work. I think you just transcribed the teacher, word-for-word."

Sanada rolled his eyes. "Sometimes, I wonder whether I should refuse to lend you these and just let you fail." he muttered.

"But you wouldn't. It's beyond your dignity to have a tennis club member fail any of their classes, right?" Yanagi teased, as he handed the book back.

Sanada sighed and rolled his eyes, away from Yanagi's perceptive gaze. "Chance of rolling your eyes, 100%." said Yanagi in a sing-song voice and for an instant; Sanada entertained the idea of hitting Yanagi over the head with his tennis racket. Sometimes, Yanagi acted far too much like Sasuke for his own good.

"Look, we're here." Sanada mentioned, grabbing the back of Yanagi's jersey as he made to walk past the Kanai General Hospital. Honestly, Yanagi paid attention to stupid little ticks like hair twirling and heel clicking in people, but couldn't even see the huge sign that read where their destination was?

"Thank you Genichirou." he said, as they walked into the building. A bored looking receptionist was filing her nails at the reception, seemingly ignoring the queue of large people in front of her. No one was complaining but there were several annoyed looks from the people in line.

Sanada strode forward and banged on her table very hard. The receptionist jumped, looked up and blanched. Sanada frowned at her very hard. "Tarundoru." he said, slowly and loudly.

The lady smiled weakly. "H-how can I help you…?"

"We're here to see Yukimura Seiichi." said Yanagi, an equally dangerous, but more deceiving smile on his face as he slipped around to Sanada's side. "In the Long-term Ward?"

The lady nodded as she turned to her computer, her manicured nails shaking as she typed. "Room 402. Take the stairs, and go to the second room to your right. H-have a nice day…?"

Yanagi smiled again, a little more sweetly. "I would suggest that you tend to the rest of your clients with due haste, madame. It wouldn't do to keep so many people waiting. After all, if you act like this, you'll never get the nurse internship that you've been waiting for six months for. Interns are typically hard-workers."

The lady looked speechless and nodded wordlessly. Sanada merely turned away, looking a little bored. He and Yanagi kept walking and to his surprise, they got a small round of applause from the people in the waiting room. Yanagi smiled warmly and Sanada merely grunted, before taking the stairs.

"How did you know—"

'That she wanted an internship?" asked Yanagi, smirking. "She had the certificate of her medicine degree hung up behind her and a lot of anatomy books all over the room. She seemed unhappy with her job and her nails, while manicured, weren't long or fake, they were exactly the size of nurse's gloves. It was simple deduction really."

Sanada shook his head. "I won't say this often, but you really are incredible sometimes, Renji."

"Second room to the right, was it?" asked Yanagi, as they reached the fourth floor.

Sanada nodded and he knocked on the right door. "Come in!" said a weak voice. Sanada threw a look to Yanagi, before opening the door.

Yukimura was lying down in the bed, not even making the effort to read the half-discarded book on his bed, favouring to look instead out of the window, a bored expression etched on his face.

"Hello Seiichi. How are you doing?" Yanagi asked and Yukimura turned around hastily and stared at Yanagi and Sanada in shock.

"Sanada…Renji…" he breathed, his eyes wide open and unbelieving. His face broke into a wide grin. "What are you doing here? Come in! Shut the door too, the doctors won't mind."

Sanada shut the door behind them and Yanagi walked over to the chair next to Yukimura's bed, moving the flowers onto Yukimura's table. Yukimura seemed to be attempting to sit up and Yanagi frowned. "Don't trouble yourself, Seiichi. How are you feeling?"

"Not as well as I could be, but better since you two arrived. You didn't answer me, either of you, what are you doing here?" asked Yukimura, sitting up despite Yanagi's orders, grinning infectiously.

"To see you obviously." Sanada said, shortly, pulling at his cap, moving to the opposite side of Yanagi's chair.

"Idiot." said Yanagi, affectionately, flicking at Yukimura's nose. "We came as soon as we could. But we didn't want to neglect practice, so I'm sorry that we're late."

Yukimura laughed. "No, you did the right thing. Tennis comes first."

Yanagi grinned. "It's good to see you again, Seiichi." he said and Yukimura grinned shyly before pulling Yanagi into an awkward hug.

"Me too. I haven't seen anyone other than doctors and my mother for the past few days." said Yukimura, pulling out of Yanagi's grip, smiling weakly.

Yanagi crinkled his nose. "Must have been awful."

"It was. I would have welcomed Moshina's atrocious flirting rather than stay here and be poked at by doctors." said Yukimura, pulling a face.

"What…what is it anyway? The neurological disorder?" asked Yanagi, hesitantly.

"It's called Guillain-Barre." said Yukimura, after a few moments of silence. He scratched his head slightly and pulled a little at his green pyjamas. "It's an autoimmune disorder that attacks the peripheral nervous system. It's a paralysis of the limbs, from legs upwards and up to the arms and brain, where it'll potentially clog up neural circuits and might result in permanent paralysis."

Silence reigned in the room for a few moments. Yukimura just nodded after a while. "I know, it sounds awful. But you know, what happens, happens. You've just got to deal with it." he said, shooting them an unconvincing smile.

Sanada crossed his arms over his chest. "Stop hiding." he said, sternly. "What's the use in pretending that you're still happy about everything in life, Yukimura?"

Yukimura blinked. "What are you talking about, Sanada?"

Sanada rolled his eyes. "We're your friends, aren't we, Yukimura? Let us help you. You don't have to hide behind fake smiles and comforting words."

Yukimura blinked again, before nodding, and to Sanada's surprise, tears started rolling down his cheeks. "I'm so scared, Sanada, Renji. It's apparently really serious and they don't know whether their usual treatments are going to work on me. There's a high percentage of death. I don't want to die. I don't want to die." he whispered.

Yanagi shut his eyes and grimaced. Sanada merely placed a hand on Yukimura's shoulder and sat on the edge of his bed. It wasn't something that he usually did to anybody but the sight of his best friend in tears was something so novel that it deserved to be met with an equally drastic action.

To his surprise, Yukimura leant into his chest and Yanagi also put his arms around Yukimura until the three of them were just holding each other. Yanagi's eyes looked like they were turning red and watery.

"You know," said Yukimura, sniffing a little as he wiped away the last of his tears, after Sanada finally let go. "I think it might just be divine retribution. My style of tennis made it so my opponents were temporarily paralysed with fear. Now here I am, paralysed forever. Ironic, isn't it?" he said, laughing almost hysterically.

"Don't be stupid." Yanagi and Sanada said at the same time. They glanced at each other. Yanagi gestured for Sanada to go first.

"No god, Shinto or otherwise, would give you a life-threatening disease for scaring your opponents a little. If that sort of thing happened, Kirihara would have been targeted long before you. It's just bad luck." he said, sternly, pulling at his cap.

Yukimura chuckled a little forcedly, his red-rimmed eyes glinting. "Clearly, you never read the Old Testament for your Religious Studies project. Their god is rather vengeful."

'The Bible was written by people," pointed out Yanagi, smiling a little, "And besides, the church realized it's mistake in the New Testament, didn't it? Their's is a merciful god, now."

Yukimura smiled sheepishly. "I suppose that you're right as per usual, Renji."

"You can despair about luck, and you can despair about not being able to play tennis, but despairing over whether or not this was your fault? That's idiocy, Yukimura, and you know it." said Yanagi, sternly. Sanada nodded.

"I guess if you are both teaming up against me, I can't argue about it." said Yukimura, laughing a little, as he wiped away the last of his tears. It was a sunny laugh and most of all, it was real. Sanada smiled faintly.

"Speaking of tennis, how are the team doing?" asked Yukimura, leaning forwards, looking bright with curiousity.

"As can be expected. We won those practice matches against Hyotei, but they didn't play any regulars against us. Not a single one, despite there being many reporters and journalists." said Sanada quietly. "It doesn't make much sense. Why would the showman, Atobe, basically forfeit those matches against us? Surely he'd want to cultivate the image of victory?"

"Actually, it makes a lot of sense, Genichirou." said Yanagi, "You said it yourself, Atobe's a showman. It's all very well if the person who has the advantage wins, but people like to root for the underdog. Atobe wants to cultivate the underdog appearance for Hyotei. And losing his regulars to Rikkaidai before the Tokyo prefecturals have even started, is stupidity on his part. You know Hyotei's absolute law of defeat, don't you?"

Yukimura nodded. "Who did you send out?"

Yanagi started to explain about the matches in his precise voice, but Sanada started to drift. Something about Yanagi's line had stuck with him. Oh yes, it had been Hyotei's law of absolute defeat. If somebody lost, they were kicked off the regulars for good. No second chances.

Would…would that work for Rikkaidai? Could that work? It wasn't like they had lost to many people in any case. Nearly all of the matches that Rikkaidai won ended 6-0 and the tournaments were almost always 3-0, without ever having to play all of their players.

"You're tuning out, Sanada? I hope that we aren't as boring as Mizawa-sensei's lectures are." asked Yukimura, looking amused.

"Of course not." he said, stiffly, "I was contemplating something."

"Aren't you always?" asked Yanagi, curiously.

"Only sometimes." Sanada answered, making sure that the smirk was very clear. He prided himself on being stoic and expressionless, but he couldn't have been friends with the two schemers for this long, without some sort of appreciation for the subtleties and nuances of the conversations. He did have emotions, after all; he just didn't express them.

Yukimura snickered and Yanagi grinned ruefully. "I have to say, you defying the data wasn't within my predictions for today, Genichirou."

"Do I make you run 50 laps for this unforgivable breach in in your promised data skills, Yanagi?" asked Sanada, making sure to school his voice to be serious.

The three boys were silent for a minute before Yukimura broke the silence with soft sniggers and Yanagi chuckled, looking slightly uncertain.

"You have dishonoured Rikkaidai. Get out of my sight!" Sanada ordered and this time, Yukimura laughed outrightly and Sanada smirked and Yanagi chuckled despite the disgruntled expression on his face.

"That wasn't funny, Genichirou, I actually thought you were going to make me run laps!" Yanagi said, looking annoyed.

"Wouldn't it have been against your data, Renji?" asked Yukimura, as he recovered from his laughter.

"Everyone is getting into this habit of defying my data. I don't like it. I'll have to up my collecting abilities before this epidemic gets too out of hand." said Yanagi, sniffing in a slightly exaggerated manner.

Yukimura smiled faintly. "You are out to make me laugh today, aren't you, Renji?"

"Laughter is the best medicine." said Yanagi, smiling faintly. They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence, as Sanada leant against the wall and Yanagi fussed with his blazer.

"Do you need us to bring you anything?" asked Sanada, after a while, of staring out of the window. "It seems a little dull here."

"It is." Yukimura said, mouth pointed down at the sides. "But I don't think I really need anything besides company. It's difficult to concentrate on reading, after a while."

"Next time, we'll bring the rest of the team along. Bunta's been moping because you haven't been around very often." said Yanagi, smirking slightly. "I think he misses stealing food from you."

"If he eats any more, soon he won't be able to run laps." muttered Sanada darkly and Yukimura giggled slightly.

"That's rather mean, Genichirou." he said, laughing.

Sanada blinked. That was the first time that Yukimura had addressed him by his first name. It was weird, since they'd known each other since they were four, but Yukimura had always been Yukimura, even if Yanagi had morphed into Renji somewhere along the way. "I guess it is slightly unfair," he muttered, "But his BMI isn't healthy."

"Well, we should improve it, shouldn't we? In time for Nationals?" asked Yukimura smiling angelically.

"You still think that we'll be able to make it there?" asked Yanagi, looking confused.

"Of course. I'm just one player. You lot are the main team. Besides, it hardly ever got to Singles 1, previously." said Yukimura, smirking coolly.

"We'll make it there Renji, Yukimura. We'll make it there without a single loss." he said, calmly. The other two turned around to look at him.

"S…sanada..." said Yukimura, looking a little shocked.

'We'll make it there without a single loss. We won't lose to anyone, no matter what. And in return, you've got to get better. And you'll come with us to Nationals. And we'll win it together, the eight of us." said Sanada, pulling at his cap again.

"Sanada…" Yanagi said, looking shocked.

"You've got to promise me, Yukimura, no—Seiichi. Promise me that you'll get better for Nationals and we'll make sure that Rikkaidai wins their third consecutive victory." said Sanada, looking Yukimura, straight in the eye.

Yukimura smiled and nodded. "I promise you. But Sanada…..no losses…"

"We'll do it. We're Rikkaidai, Fuzoku Chuu, Number 1 seed in all of Japan. We'll win it again." said Sanada.

Yanagi smirked. "Looks like we'll have to increase the training schedule then, Genichirou. Maybe even make practices longer."

"They're all tarundoru as it is, anyway. Maybe this will give them incentive to reach their potential." he grumbled, looking away.

Yukimura leant back. "I'm so grateful for the two of you. Thank you for taking over my responsibility. It must be irritating, on top of all of your other responsibil—"

"Enough." Sanada said.

"Genichirou's right, it doesn't matter. You should focus on getting better. Worrying will do nothing." said Yanagi, sternly.

"But—"

"But nothing." Sanada interrupted and Yukimura shook his head.

"Such insolence from both of you. If I were still captain—"

"You are still the Captain." Sanada said, calmly, "You always will be. But for now, you're our friend first, and you're being foolish."

Yukimura blinked for a moment, before chuckling lowly, his smooth eyelashes brushing over his pale white skin, which looked slightly tight over his face, a detail that Sanada hadn't really noticed before. He reached out both of his hands, one to each of his friends. Yanagi took it without hesitation and Sanada shortly followed. "Thank you. Both of you. Thank you. I'll be happy to leave the responsibility of the club in your hands."

"We'll come by tomorrow again. Do you want your classwork or not?" asked Sanada, coolly.

"I think I will ask for History, English, Japanese and Maths. But nothing else, please. Especially not science." Yukimura said, pulling a face.

"I think Genichirou has his history notes now. You should take that for tomorrow, because we have a test tomorrow for the whole period, so we won't need the notes. I'll lend you my maths book, because I transcribed the teacher's lecture today. We started into factoring expressions today." Yanagi explained as they both reached into their respective bags for the schoolwork.

Yukimura nodded, his blue eyes blazing and Sanada nodded as he handed Yukimura his textbook.

"We'll be off now, Yukimura." said Sanada tipping his cap towards their captain. "We'll be back tomorrow with the rest of the team, so we might be a little later than we were today."

"Be seeing you, Seiichi." said Yanagi, as he too rose from his seat.

"Bye." he said, smiling lightly.

(X)

"And then Junka-chan turned on the lights again and the entire room was covered in white paint and Kiruyama-sensei was speechless for exactly a minute before screeching 'NIIIIOOOOOUUUU!' at the top of her voice. He had detention for four days! Sanada-fukubuchou almost killed him!" Marui related, voice excited and filled with emotion as he retold the story of Niou's pranking antics from where he was perched on the end of Yukimura's bed.

Yukimura was laughing along with Kirihara, who was also perched on the bed, who hadn't heard the story and Niou who always laughed at the stories of his pranks, as he leant back against the wall, in his rickety hospital chair. Sanada exchanged looks with Yagyuu who merely sighed.

"Two days trying to convince the discipline committee to not remove Niou from the tennis team was not fun." Yagyuu said, adjusting his glasses.

"I was tempted to make you run 1000 laps for that trouble." Sanada muttered and Yanagi smirked.

"I think I would have done worse, in his position, Marui. You're lucky that Sanada isn't into humiliating punishment, Niou, I can't imagine how annoyed I would have been." said Yukimura, snickering.

Niou grinned. "That's why I'm not fool enough to prank you, Yukimura-buchou."

"When we get back to school, you're to do 200 laps with weights, 50 abdominal drills and then play against Yanagi and Kirihara both." said Sanada quite calmly, "Your stamina has been lacking, of late."

The entire room started laughing, except for Niou who mock-scowled before winking and saying "Puri!" in his cocky manner.

"The Kanagawa Prefecturals are in a week's time, aren't they Sanada?" asked Yukimura, as he leant back. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

Marui rolled his eyes as he popped a bubble of gum. "He's training us for Nationals Victory, Yukimura-buchou, anything before that is easy, easy, easy. Especially for a tensai like me."

"I wouldn't get cocky if I were you, Marui-senpai. There's always someone better, right?" asked Kirihara, smirking coldly, his eyes flashing with something unreadable.

Sanada crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Kirihara. While he agreed with the sentiment, he really disagreed with the delivery. "Kirihara…" he warned.

"Yes, yes, fukubuchou. I'll behave. I won't insult roundy any more than he deserves." said Kirhara blithely.

Marui turned red with embarrassment and anger, clenching his fists together. He then threw himself fists forward, towards Kirihara, leaping over Yukimura, who leant back away from the fighting duo with amusement etched over his face. Kirihara collapsed to the floor with a thud and the two were round-housing for only a few seconds, before Sanada reached them and pulled them apart, anger engraved over his usually emotionless face.

"Get out." he spat. "And go run 40 laps around the hospital now. Fighting like this is unacceptable, especially here."

Niou blinked a little and whistled in shock as the two slunk out of the door, in shock. "Blimey fukubuchou, that was harsh."

"We aren't at the tennis courts. They need to learn to discipline themselves. This is a hospital. And there are ill people here." Sanada said seriously.

"I don't mind. It's a little slice of being normal again." said Yukimura, smiling beatifically.

"I wasn't talking about you, Yukimura. I know that you don't care about their antics. I was talking about the rest of the patients in the hospital. We don't need to disturb them." Sanada said, keeping his tone completely respectful.

The problem was, Yukimura didn't care about the discipline of their team unless they did something wrong on the courts or in the locker rooms. Sanada did. They had a large difference of opinions.

Niou looked like he was going to protest but shut his mouth at Yagyuu's glare.

"Did you hear, Yukimura-buchou?" asked Jackal calmly, from where he was seated. "The school play has Sanada as the main role with Marui as one of the main cast of characters. Everyone's pretty excited to see it run. I think that a big corporation is sponsoring it, so it should be interesting."

"Yes, because it isn't a musical, therefore the audience won't get deafened." said Yanagi easily. Sanada glared at Yanagi while Yukimura smirked, deviously so. Sanada rolled his eyes, his singing wasn't that loud. Sure, practically the whole school could hear it without him ever needing to use a microphone, but was that necessarily a bad thing?

"You know, I think that would be brilliant to watch. Are any of the rest of you in the play other than Sanada and Bunta?" asked Yukimura, smiling.

"I'm working backstage on getting everyone organized." said Yagyuu nonchalantly, "And I think Kirihara has a minor role somewhere, with a couple of lines. Not sure."

Yukimura smiled. "Niou, you or Jackal ought to film it for me. It would be interesting to watch. Who is your co-star, Sanada?" he asked, eyes twinkling.

"Moshina-chan!" said Niou, grinning mischievously, "I think Sanada's unhappy about it, but it's not like anyone can tell what fukubuchou is thinking."

"I do believe that Genichirou once said, 'I wish that she would stop talking so much. Her voice is like sticking nails down my throat.'" said Yanagi, reading from a book, causing nearly everybody to scoff or snigger.

Sanada pulled the cap down his face, hiding his eyes. He did remember saying that sometime in his freshman year, but having things like that pulled up now was a little embarrassing. Sometimes, he really hated having Yanagi as a friend.

"I didn't know that you felt that way Sanada-kun." said Yagyuu, adjusting his collar, "I'm sure Moshina-chan will be very upset to hear it."

"Are you asking for laps, Yagyuu?" Sanada asked, his voice dangerous.

"Not at all." he said pleasantly.

"Then don't insinuate things. People might take them in the wrong way." he said, acidly. Yukimura desperately hid his giggles and Yanagi didn't bother, laughing outrightly.

At that moment, a nurse walked in rolling in a cart of horrible looking instruments of what seemed more like torture than care. "Okay then Yukimura-kun. Your friends will have to leave now, as I have the check-ups to do. Come back tomorrow." she said, cheerfully. Sanada nodded and left, pulling the rest of his teammates with him.

(X)

Between supervising the club and teaching kendo lessons, Sanada hadn't had much time for his own tennis practice. It had required cutting out his morning meditation, but he'd arrived at the school early to use the machines to practice FuRinKaZan. After all, despite them being the finishing shots of his tennis, every type of movement went rusty without practice. And even if Sanada wasn't going to use them in a practice against his teammates and let them get cocky about how good they were, he had no qualms about letting his anger out on a machine.

He set the machines up to the highest speed and loaded the machine with as many tennis balls as he could fit. He positioned himself by the baseline and let himself get lost in the repetitive movements and the sheer muscle memory of reacting to the shots around him. Sanada loved playing tennis because of how easy it was to get lost in it.

And suddenly, it was like a switch had been flipped in his head, because all of a sudden, Sanada saw his match with Tezuka, from almost three years ago in front of him. He saw it and knew that he could change the outcome of that match by playing better than he had then. He served and swung the shots with every last part of his soul, and was about to smash down his match point when the balls stopped coming.

Sanada landed on the floor lightly and frowned at the machine. He'd been so deeply immersed in the imaginary game that he'd forgotten to keep count of the balls. Hmmph. He started picking up the balls from wherever they had landed. The disadvantage of practicing by himself was the lack of helpful freshman running around the get the balls for him.

"Sanada-kun? Are you usually here this early?" asked a familiar voice.

Sanada turned around. Yagyuu was standing the gym's door, his racket twirling on the ground. "No." he answered.

"Need a practise partner?" asked Yagyuu, almost casually.

Sanada threw him a glance. "Play me if you wish. But make sure that you play with a high speed today."

Yagyuu nodded, as he took the position for the serve. It was fast and barely in the line. Sanada reached it easily and batted it over the net, with a lot of power. To his surprise, Yagyuu immediately smashed a Laser Beam past him.

"You're distracted today, Sanada-kun." said Yagyuu frowning politely. "Are you well?"

"A little tired." said Sanada, honestly. Yagyuu was always polite and didn't make a habit of gossiping, even if he threatened to sometimes.

"Then is it really wise to be playing tennis?" asked Yagyuu, dropping his serving position.

"I'll be fine." Snada said, shortly.

"I'm not sure. The Discipline Committee are a little worried. You haven't come to meetings all week. Is anything the matter?" asked Yagyuu, a visible frown on his usually impassive face.

"I have to oversee my grandfather's kendo classes. His arm is currently broken, therefore I must teach in his behalf. It means that I can't stay for very long after school." said Sanada, adjusting his cap a little, noting Yagyuu's sharp look. Yes, it wasn't part of the uniform, but he never wore it in lessons, so Yagyuu couldn't reprimand him.

"Is there no one else? You are fourteen, and teaching is an intensive job." said Yagyuu, leaning forward on his racket.

"It is my duty as a Sanada and as his grandson. Now serve, Yagyuu, or else, I will." he said, shortly.

Yagyuu looked unhappy, but served. They played a short rally, which ended when Yagyuu's Laser Beam was returned deftly by Sanada.

"You seem to be faring well, Sanada-kun, but if you need any help, don't hesitate to ask. I can lend you my notes, if needed or take over your patrol duties." said Yagyuu, as he prepared to serve again.

"That won't be necessary, but I thank you, nonetheless." said Sanada, getting into the ready stance.

"If you say so, Sanada-kun." he said, and the ball rocketed down into the service box and all thoughts of anything but the ball were erased.

(X)

"Yukimura?" Sanada asked hesitantly, as he pushed the door open to the hospital room bed. It was a Wednesday afternoon, right after tennis practice.

"Sanada!" he said, warmly, turning around and pausing slightly at the lack of the usual entourage that followed him.

"It's just me today, Yukimura." he said gruffly, as he strode into the room and leant against the wall next to Yukimura. "Nobody else could make it and I can only spare a few minutes."

Yukimura paused. He was still smiling but it was obviously fake. "I…see."

"It's the debut of the school play today. We'll be back to visiting regularly by the weekend." Sanada said, placing the relevant books upon the bedside table, softly. "Niou asked me to bring you some cake. I think his older sister made it for you."

Yukimura nodded, his face still etched into something that seemed awkward on his friend's face. "Sanada….if these visits are an inconvenience, you don't have to come here."

"Don't be stupid, Yukimura." Sanada said, tightly.

"Sanada." said Yukimura sharply, sitting upwards.

"But you are being an idiot, currently. It's not an inconvenience to come and see you." Sanada said, frowning darkly.

"You're just doing it because you feel that it's your duty, you really don't have to make the time especially to see me! Yagyuu said that you've been so busy that you haven't even been going to your committee meetings, so seeing me is definitely a waste of your-" Yukimura said, sharply.

"It's not just duty!" Sanada yelled.

Yukimura stopped and stared at Sanada, like he'd just been slapped. Sanada sighed and pinched his eyebrows. He'd never once shouted at Yukimura, not ever.

"It's not just duty. Coming to see you will never be duty, okay? You're my best friend and the first friend I had. Coming here is for me. I want to make sure that you didn't die overnight. I want to make sure that you haven't got worse. I want to make sure that you're still smiling and that you're trying to be happy. I want to make you happier by being here. Don't you dare call this an inconvenience, because you'll never be duty to me. None of my friends are duties." Sanada finished, trailing off slightly.

He was aware that it was perhaps the longest that he'd ever spoken except for his practical kendo exams. He didn't know that he'd had that in him. He felt his cheeks flush slightly and he pulled his hat down, to hide it. But the damage was done and Yukimura was smiling softly.

"I don't know whether to be flattered that you're neglecting other duties for me or to be irritated." he said, softly, reaching his hand out to Sanada. "What are you supposed to be doing now?"

Sanada took his hand and squeezed it softly. "Eating dinner. I called my mother to tell her and I got some protein bars and an apple on the way here. The others are probably trying to frantically prepare for the play at the school or are eating."

Yukimura frowned. "You need to eat more than that. Next thing you know, you'll be fainting on the middle of the stage and both of us will be in hospital and what will the team do then?"

Sanada laughed dryly. "I think it would take a little more than skipping one meal to bring me down."

Yukimura frowned mockingly. "Are you implying something, Sanada?" His mouth quirked up though, which revealed his amusement.

"Of course not. Except you know…you have been described as dainty by many and when you first showed up at the school's tennis club, Renji doubted that you'd be able to lift up a racket, let alone wipe the floor with him." said Sanada plainly and Yukimura laughed.

"My little secret. Everyone takes you a little less seriously when you don't look like you're actually very good." said Yukimura, teasingly. "Now, you've seen me. I'm fine, nothing changed as far as medications or treatments. So, go eat something and go join everybody at the school. Captain's orders."

Sanada made to protest but Yukimura glared at him. "Off with you."

"I'll see you tomorrow then, Yukimura." he said.

"Don't you dare! I don't want to see you skipping meals by coming here until the show is over!" said Yukimura, frowning. Then his face softened. "And Sanada?"

"Yes?" he asked, turning around.

"Good luck." he said, smiling.

Sanada nodded and left the room.

(X)

"You know, there's an eighty percent chance that you're overworking yourself." said Yanagi conversationally, as he plopped himself in the chair next to Sanada. Sanada looked up from his literature notes.

"What are you doing here, Renji? You only share science with me and that's not the next period." said Sanada, looking back down at his notes.

"It's lunchtime, Sanada. I can be anywhere I like." said Yanagi, "Though, by the looks of it, it seems like you forgot that. Where's your food?"

Sanada blinked slightly. "Lunchtime? Isn't it literature next?"

"No, it's lunchtime next." said Yanagi, "It's already been fourth period. Most of the school was laughing at your rendition of Sakura again. How do you not remember?"

Sanada blinked again and stared back down at his notes. "I…don't know."

Yanagi looked worried. "For how long did you sleep yesterday, Genichirou?"

Sanada frowned, why was his memory so cloudy? "I think I went to bed later than usual, because I was teaching extra classes in preparation for the kendo exams. I think it was at 11."

"And what time did you wake up?" asked Yanagi, looking serious.

"Usual time." said Sanada, "4:00 so I could meditate in peace, without Sasuke being irritating."

Yanagi rolled his eyes. "The probability that your body is protesting from lack of sleep is 100%. Sheesh Genichirou, you only slept for five hours!"

Sanada frowned; it had felt like longer than that. "It doesn't matter, it's only one day."

"Has it been?" asked Yanagi, skeptically. "You were literally nodding off in Calligraphy last week, according to Jackal. Isn't that your favourite lesson?"

Sanada scowled now. "Leave it, Renji, it's fine."

Yanagi looked unconvinced. "Where's your lunch, anyway? Don't you usually start eating about now?"

Sanada rolled his eyes and reached for his bento box from inside his bag and froze. There was a large empty spot inside the bag where his lunch usually was. He'd…he'd forgotten his lunch.

Sanada placed his heads in his hands, feeling his face heat up at the mishap. "Don't say anything, Renji." he muttered darkly.

"Go home, Sanada. I'll run practice without you. Go and sleep." said Yanagi, smiling sympathetically.

"No, what will they say?" said Sanada, bolting upright, looking horrified.

"20% will say that Sanada-fukubuchou is overworked, Sanada-fukubuchou is doing extra practice, 75% and 5% will be from Niou, Akaya and Yagyuu who will make snarky comments as per usual."

Sanada closed his eyes. "Fine." he said, tightly. He didn't want to leave, but at the same time, he knew that he'd be useless for the rest of the day.

"I'll take you to the nurse's office, and I'll ask them to call your mother. She'll be home, won't she?" asked Yanagi, as he took Sanada's stuff away, much to Sanada's protestations.

"I'm fine, Renji. Leave it!" Sanada snapped.

"You aren't fine!" yelled Yanagi back, turning towards Sanada sharply. "You need to realize that you're being stubborn and stupid about this! Do you really think that Yukimura wanted this? He said that he placed the responsibility of the club in our hands, but not at this cost! Your grades have been slipping, you've been falling asleep in classes and you were slower in practice laps yesterday!"

Sanad frowned. "Renji—"

"At this rate, you'll be in the hospital too! And I refuse to see both of my best friends in hospital. So I suggest that you get back to being yourself again, before I come around your house and force you and your parents to follow my training regime." Yanagi finished, eyes open and blazing with anger.

Sanada bit his lip. "I'm not overworking myself Renji. I'll sleep today, but I'll be back tomorrow."

To his surprise, Yanagi reached up and slapped him, hard. Then he growled, angrily. "Why are both of my best friends idiots?" he asked, angrily.

Then he sighed and drooped, placing a hand on his forehead, looking tired. "No, I'm the idiot. The chance of you listening to me was 4%. Just forget this, Sanada. I'll watch you work yourself into the ground in silence, as per usual. Just forget I said anything." he said, his voice bitter and dull.

Sanada blinked and sighed growling a little. "Renji…I can't just drop my duties without any warning."

"I'm not asking you to do that!" said Renji, looking exasperated, "I'm asking you to give yourself a load that you can actually handle and let me help you sort things out! Let Hiroshi and Jackal and Bunta and everybody else who wants to! You're not alone in trying to deal with Seiichi's absence, Genichirou!"

Sanada paused and nodded slightly. "Fine, Renji. You win. I'll try to …give up some of my duties." At this, he pulled a face. He hated the fact that he wasn't capable to deal with it. "But it won't be easy."

"It isn't easy for any of us, Genichirou. Not even one." said Renji, his face cold. "Maybe if you looked a little harder, you'd see that."

"I'm sorry Renji. What more can I say?" asked Sanada.

Renji smiled sadly. "You don't need to say anything. I'll recover. He'll recover. We'll all recover. By Nationals, right?"

"Nationals." said Sanada, and clapped his hand on Renji's shoulder, before continuing to walk to the Nurse's office.

(X)

Sanada sighed as he walked out of the door of the changing rooms. True to his word, he'd passed on a lot of the club's paperwork to Renji and asked for the discipline committee to give him a bye of two weeks, so that he could finish teaching the kendo classes for the exams. After that, his older brother would finally be back in the country and would be able to take over the lessons for his grandfather, whose arm had still not healed.

Sanada stopped abruptly in his path as he saw Niou practically walk into a streetlight. Sanada ran a little and went to the crumpled pile of Niou on the road, pulled him onto the pavement and quickly examined the reddened area on his forehead.

It wasn't cut, only slightly red and there was no swelling and no evidence of a dent. It didn't look like Niou had been severely injured so Sanada felt no qualms about slapping him sharply, to revive him.

Niou stirred slightly but didn't make any other motion of waking up. Sanada sighed and reached for his waterbottle and tipped the water over Niou's head. That worked and Niou groaned a little as he opened his eyes, blearily.

"S—Sanada?" he asked, his voice a little slurred. "What happened?"

"You walked into a pole, idiot. How do you miss the fact that there's a street-light in front of you?" Sanada asked coldly. "I'm going to check that you don't have a concussion. Name?"

"Niou Masaharu. 3rd year Regular on the Rikkaidai Fuzoku Chuu Tennis Club." Niou said, as he sat up slowly.

"Date?" asked Sanada.

"February 24th 2004. We had 50 laps in practice today and Jackal almost killed Akaya-kun after he sent an errant ball into his path." said Niou, fingers lightly brushing over his forehead.

"Lastly, how many fingers am I holding up?" asked Sanada.

"All five." said Niou, looking at Sanada's hand, not looking impressed. "Can I go now?"

"Why did you walk into a pole?" asked Sanada, sternly, as he offered Niou a hand back up.

"Careless, I guess. Wasn't looking where I was going." said Niou, shrugging a little as he brushed off his uniform.

"Not like you, is it?" Sanada remarked.

"Saa." said Niou, shortly, not even taking the opportunity to insert his nonsense words as he usually did.

"Anything wrong, Niou?" asked Sanada, as they walked out of the school.

"Not especially." said Niou, as he ran his fingers through his rat-tail. "Anything wrong with you?"

"Many things. Yukimura's absence, too much paperwork, the surprise history test today, the useless kendo students in my grandfather's dojo. But they aren't urgent problems. Yours is." Sanada said, his voice clipped. He wasn't one to complain about anything, ever, but dealing with Niou required being understanding and patient. Usually, this was Yukimura's job, but since Yukimura was gone, it was Sanada's job.

"I said that I didn't have a problem." said Niou, sticking his hands into his pockets.

"It's rather obvious that you do." said Sanada, sternly. "If it's going to affect your vision like that, it will affect your tennis. Explain."

Niou looked mutinous and scowled angrily. Sanada refrained from rolling his eyes. "Come and have tea. Maybe you'll feel more like talking after tea. My house is close by." Sanada made sure to leave no room for disagreement in his tone.

"I don't even like tea." Niou muttered darkly, as they neared his house.

"I'm home." called Sanada as he placed his shoes in the rack. Niou followed suit and Sanada beckoned him upstairs before—Bother.

"Genichirou!" yelled Sasuke as he flew down the corridor, "I caught ten fireflies today! You promised me that you'd play a videogame with me if I did it!"

"I'll play with you at the weekend, Sasuke. We have a guest today." Sanada said, sternly. "Niou, this is my nephew, Sasuke. Sasuke, this is Niou, my teammate. Don't bother us too much, okay? Can you go and ask kaa-sama to lay out the tea set?"

Sasuke pouted. "You're so irritating, old man. Fine. But you owe me two video games!"

Niou looked more amused than he had the right to and smirked slightly. "Lively, isn't he?" he commented, as Sasuke scampered away.

"No bothering him, either. He's too gullible for his own good." said Sanada sternly.

"Would I do something like that?" asked Niou, widening his eyes comically.

"Yes, you would." Sanada said sternly, as he opened the door to his room.

He placed his bags down and removed his jacket, reaching instead for the house-jumper that he usually wore. He was tempted to change into a yukata and give Niou a spare one, but Niou looked uncomfortable enough and Sanada was sure that if he conducted a proper tea ceremony, he wouldn't get a single answer from Niou.

"You can leave your bags here for now." said Sanada, as he pulled the jumper over his head.

"Why are you doing this?" asked Niou, eyes shrewd and … confused? Sanada didn't know how to read his teammates sometimes. Niou had always been the hardest to read, even for Renji.

"Because it's affecting your tennis play. The law of Rikkai is winning. And in your current mental state, winning is a far-off prospect. Tennis is as much of a mental sport as it is physical. You know it yourself, Niou, you use it to throw off your opponents. I don't need to explain these simple facts to you." said Sanada, his voice clipped as he made his way back down the stairs.

"Genichirou, do want some food to go with the tea?" asked his mother fondly, as he entered the kitchen. Her hands still looked dirty from her gardening but the tea set was already laid out.

Sanada turned to Niou who shook his head. "No, okaa-sama, we'll be fine."

His mother turned around and her eyes widened at not seeing Renji or Yukimura there. She then smiled warmly as she dried off her hands. "It's nice to see another of Genichirou's friends! What's your name?"

"Niou Masaharu." said Niou calmly, before bowing respectfully. "It's nice to meet you."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you as well, Masaharu-kun! Will you be staying for dinner?" asked his mother as the kettle finished heating and she poured the contents of the kettle into the pot.

"No," said Niou, smiling falsely, his eyes clouded with an emotion that Sanada couldn't identify. "I'll be going out for dinner today, but thank you for your offer, nonetheless."

"Oh, so polite!" said Sanada's mother, fondly. "Here's the tea set, Genichirou. The table is still set up with the Shougi set, so you might have to clear that off."

Sanada refrained from snorting at the idea of Niou being polite, but for some reason, he was behaving very politely, so Sanada just balanced the tea set in one hand as he navigated his way down to the living room where they took a seat. Sanada made the tea in silence, as Niou looked around the room and out to the garden, where Sasuke was trying to catch more fireflies and his grandfather was meditating.

"So, what troubles you?" asked Sanada, as he handed him the cup.

Niou's hands curled around the cup and scowled darkly. There was more silence before he sighed. "My mother." he said, finally. "I'm worried about her."

Sanada was silent as he took a sip from his cup. He didn't know if he was supposed to say something yet or wait or what. He was clueless and this really wasn't supposed to be his job. It was perhaps the first time that Sanada had hated Yukimura for being in the hospital bed, because…well no. Sanada hated himself for not seeing this earlier. Because Yukimura would have noticed it immediately.

"She was diagnosed as schizophrenic before I was born, and people with schizophrenia can be normal citizens, really. She's been taking anti-psychotics for a long time and usually she's fine, if a bit quiet and a little paranoid sometimes. But, ever since my dad died two years, she'd been a little more depressed, a little bit more psychotic. Usually, I'd come home to her thinking that the neighbour's cat was out to kill her or something like that. And that was okay to deal with, I guess. I could usually convince her that nothing was wrong and things went back to normal."

Niou sighed and took a deep sip from the teacup. Sanada merely kept watching. It seemed to be what Niou was expecting.

"Then, something like a month ago now, she got a new boyfriend. I don't know how or from where, but they seemed happy, so I didn't care about that either. But then, yesterday, I came home to her babbling at the walls, wearing a tin-foil hat. She didn't know who I was and thought that I was going to kill her." Niou stopped here and took a deep breath in.

"I went to go get her prescription, I thought that she might have forgotten or something. Thing is, in the back of my mind, I knew something more serious was happening, because missing one dose of prescription isn't going to matter too much. I went to her room, and where we had stacks upon stacks of medication, every last one was gone. There was no trace of them ever existing. Ever."

Sanada blinked slightly. It was a serious situation and his thoughts really weren't appropriate, but Niou was very good at making a story suspenseful and dramatic. He'd have to suggest Niou to the drama club.

Niou bit his lip and Sanada tuned back in. "I called her boyfriend, to see if she'd taken them to his house by accident. He said that she'd thrown them away. She'd said that she didn't need them anymore because they had each other. If he lived near us, I would have gone over there and punched him into little pieces." said Niou, fiercely, "This morning, I found some of the wrappers in the bins, but none of the pills. She doesn't work today, luckily, but I don't know what to do."

Sanada nodded slightly and drained the last of the tea from his cup, before standing up again.

"Huh?" asked Niou, as Sanada offered him a hand up.

"Do you remember or have the labels of the medicine?" asked Sanada.

Niou nodded and handed him the packet labels, which were inside his pocket to Sanada. The names were unfamiliar, both Japanese and English versions. Time to turn to the expert.

"Come on. My laptop is in Sasuke's room." said Sanada. "I want to see if these are easily available or whether you need a doctor's prescription to get more of these."

"Yes," said Niou, "That's all very well, but she won't take them, even if I do give it to her again."

Sanada turned around to Niou. "Who said that you'd be giving them to her in plain sight?"

Niou's eyes widened. "You mean I should drug her?"

"If it will make her feel better again. She will feel like she's doing well without them and you will have a relatively normal mother. When her boyfriend has gone, she will no doubt feel angry again, then, you should give her the pills again, willingly. Don't deceive her for too long, lest something go wrong. You're the trickster, aren't you? Shouldn't you have come up with this already?" asked Sanada.

Niou grinned mischievously. "Who knew that our stoic fukubuchou had the spirit of a trickster in him?"

Sanad glared at Niou, but he didn't seem to take the hint. "Maybe you should help Yagyuu and I pull a prank on Akaya-kun; after all, he wouldn't get mad if you pulled it off. Who knows, you might not be such a stick-in-the-ass after al-"

"Niou." he barked, coldly. Niou winced.

"50 laps?' he asked.

"100." said Sanada, pursing his lips.

Niou rolled his eyes. "Hopeless." he muttered darkly.

"200."

"Shimatta!"

"Tarundoru!"

(X)

Sanada sighed as he jogged to the hospital. The Sanada Family Stone, which was usually a barely noticed weight, felt like the world was upon his shoulder as he ran through the streets. The rest of the regulars were already at the hospital, which made him feel very irritated indeed. It was March 5th, Yukimura's birthday and he was late to see him.

Why Yoshizawa-sensei had chosen today to keep him behind, he didn't know, but he'd been kind to Renji and said that he'd deal with the headmaster alone. Well, he was regretting that now. One whole hour of discussing their first performances at the preliminaries. Ttch. It had been a waste of his time.

Sanada almost ran past the receptionist. He knew where Yukimura's room was by heart and he paused for a moment at the elevators, gave them up as useless and sprinted up the stairs. He could see that it was almost sunset. The rest of the team were bound to have left by now. Ttch. He was tarundoru.

He finally made it to Yukimura's room and knocked rapidly. "Come in." said a voice and Sanada walked in, trying to look slightly dignified.

"Sanada!" said Yukimura, his face lighting up at seeing him, "I thought you couldn't make it!"

"Wouldn't…just leave you…here on your…birthday." panted Sanada, grasping his sides as he collapsed on the chair next to Yukimura.

Yukimura looked highly amused. "Did you honestly run here all the way from Rikkaidai?"

"The train line…was 2 minutes… late. They were…. tarundoru." said Sanada, trying to frown, but failing, as he struggled to breathe.

"It's okay to be a little late, you know. Waiting for the train would have left you in a better shape than what you are now." said Yukimura, patting Sanada's shoulder lightly, "You looked exhausted."

Sanada looked up at Yukimura through his fringe. "You made the team run 300 laps _as a warm-up_. Why are you concerned about my stamina now? Shouldn't you be…calling me tarundoru for barely being able to run 6 miles?"

"It's not like me to say things in such an old-fashioned way." said Yukimura, smiling warmly. "Besides, I'm not buchou anymore. I'm just speaking as a friend."

"You'll always be buchou." said Sanada, flatly, as he finally caught his breath and sat up, rejoicing at the feeling of being able to take deep breaths. He reached into his bag and pulled out a box. "Here." he said, handing it over to Yukimura.

Yukimura smiled as he opened the box to reveal a new tennis uniform and headband/wristband set. He blinked a little at the assorted gear like grip-tape and racket clippers as well as the various tapes of many famous players from the Australian and French Open.

"Sanada…" he said.

"You'll be back to tennis soon, so it won't do to be unprepared. These are all of the videos that actually looked like they'd be vaguely useful as far as rehabilitation and staying entertained goes and the clothing is because last year's stuff will have gotten small and old by now. My mother was worrying about how mine were already getting smaller form the beginning of this year." Sanada babbled a little.

He'd been a little worried about being insensitive by giving Yukimura these items, but…he'd known. Some part of him had told him that Yukimura would need this.

To his surprise, Yukimura threw his arms around him. "Thank you!" he said vehemently, letting go, almost reluctantly. "You know, not a single person even mentioned tennis today. Not even my little sister." He looked resentful.

"I don't know why. Just because I'm in the hospital, doesn't mean I've suddenly lost my interest for tennis." he muttered darkly and Sanada shrugged.

'They don't mean to insult you. They just don't know what to say." Sanada explained, "The curse of those who don't feel the call of tennis."

Yukimura smiled briefly. "How did practise go?"

"Wasn't there for it." said Sanada, pulling a face, "Yoshizawa-sensei pulled me aside to talk about the first win in the Prefecturals and how he was worried for our Nationals Victory this year. That was before I told him that everyone was wearing 30kg weights and still managed to win 6-0."

Yukimura giggled. "He's still obsessed with winning?"

"Of course. We all are." said Sanada, keeping his face serious. Then he smiled slightly. "I'm really sorry I couldn't come earlier."

"Don't be." said Yukimura. "I'm glad you came, regardless. I'm just glad you're my friend, really."

Sanada sighed and tugged the cap over his face to hide the rapidly spreading blush. He looked away and mumbled. "Me too, Yukimura."

Yukimura laughed, and it sounded like bells. "I think you need another session getting in touch with your emotions, Genichirou."

Sanada paled and whirled his head back around rapidly. "Not a chance! I am never seeing a psychologist again! Not after last time! Anyway, why would you choose me for that torture? If anyone, Kirihara or Niou would need that!"

Yukimura grinned devilishly. "I'd want to try and traumatize the person going, not the psychologist."

"What happened to 'I'm glad that you're my friend, Genichirou'?" asked Sanada, frowning.

"You are my friend. It's for your own good, you know. When you're more in touch with your emotions, your tennis improves." said Yukimura, his voice lilting. He was lying, obviously, but the way that he delivered the lie was artful, and if it had been anyone other than Sanada opposite him, Sanada was sure that the bluff would have worked.

"You know, there are some days where I'm tempted to say that Renji's my only best friend and leave it at that." said Sanada, flatly.

Yukimura pouted and even Sanada wasn't immune to the puppy-dog eyes that practically glistened with unshed tears. "Really Genichirou?"

"Well…I mean…no…but you really need to stop being sadistic, Yukimura!" exclaimed Sanada, crossing his arms over his chest.

"But where's the fun in that Genichirou?" teased Yukimura, laughing lightly.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, as Yukimura unfolded some of the uniform from Sanada's present and ran his fingers over the loose polyester shirt absently. "You can call me Seiichi, you know." said Yukimura finally.

"Not yet." said Sanada. "You're the captain and when the vice-captain of the team isn't respectful the team loses respect as well. Maybe when we get into High School."

Yukimura frowned. "You call Renji by his first name."

"Renji isn't the one with absolute authority over 50 students." said Sanada frowning.

"But your logic doesn't work. Renji calls you by your first name, and you're currently the temporary captain of the team." challenged Yukimura.

"I'm not the real captain, though. And besides, the only reason that they listen to me is because I shout at them and I threaten to slap them." said Sanada seriously, "Even when I shout at them, it doesn't necessarily bring about results. Marui will still end up fighting with Kirihara. Niou will probably wind up Jackal so much that he'll lose Kirihara somewhere in practice or around the school and then Kirihara will go on a killing spree, at the end of which, at least 5 second-years will be temporarily incapacitated. And that's all within two hours." said Sanada, ranting a little.

Yukimura didn't look amused by the antics, for once. He looked pensive then sighed. "High school." he said, firmly, "I don't care whether I'm captain or not, you'll be calling me Seiichi. You've only been my best friend since I was four." He extended a pinky finger and dared Sanada to protest with a glare.

Sanada laughed and curled his own pinky finger around Yukimura's. "I promise." he said, smiling softly.

**AN: DONE! So happy to have this finished. I've been writing this non-stop for two weeks and I've really grown in my liking for Sanada. I used to really dislike him, but I've really grown to like him, especially since his portrayal in the New Prince of Tennis manga. **

**In most fics, Sanada gets an awful amount of slack from his teammates, which always seemed a little uncharacteristic, to me. Sure, they're a little rowdy, but everyone's afraid of the bitchslap, inside. And compared to Seigaku, Rikkaidai is known as being akin to a military school, so…. I actually wanted to portray that. I don't think I succeeded. **

**There's no romance here, just because I wanted to do a friendship fic with Rikkai, but I'm a firm Alpha Pair/Troika supporter, as you can probably see throughout the fic. I also really like the snarky friendship between Yagyuu and Sanada. It never fails to crack me up in PairPuri. **

**I was trying to have a scene of interaction with every character, but Kirihara didn't make the cut, because he's a difficult character to capture and because Kirihara-Sanada interaction is rampant in the fandom. So I didn't need to add to it. **


End file.
